Sigmund Freud
Sigismund Shlomo Freud
(May 6, 1856, Freiberg, Austro-Hungary (now Příbor, Czech Republic) – September 23, 1939, London, England) (aged 83)
Citizenship: Austria
Category: Scientists
Occupation: Psychiatrists, Physicians, Psychologists
Specification: Psychoanalysis
Unique distinction: Founder of Psychoanalysis. He made a tremendous impact on psychology, psychotherapy, art and on the culture in general.
Gender: Male
(May 6, 1856, Freiberg, Austro-Hungary (now Příbor, Czech Republic) – September 23, 1939, London, England) (aged 83)
Citizenship: Austria
Category: Scientists
Occupation: Psychiatrists, Physicians, Psychologists
Specification: Psychoanalysis
Unique distinction: Founder of Psychoanalysis. He made a tremendous impact on psychology, psychotherapy, art and on the culture in general.
Gender: Male
Quotes:
1. Love and work… work and love, that’s all there is.
2. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
3. Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.
4. The ego is not master in its own house.
5. Where id is, there shall ego be.
6. When inspiration does not come to me, I go halfway to meet it.
7. The poets and philosophers before me discovered the unconscious; what I discovered was the scientific method by which the unconscious can be studied.
8. Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.
1. Love and work… work and love, that’s all there is.
2. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
3. Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.
4. The ego is not master in its own house.
5. Where id is, there shall ego be.
6. When inspiration does not come to me, I go halfway to meet it.
7. The poets and philosophers before me discovered the unconscious; what I discovered was the scientific method by which the unconscious can be studied.
8. Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.
Achievements and contributions
Social and professional position: Austrian psychologist and psychiatrist
The main contribution to (what is known): Sigmund Freud was the Founder of Psychoanalysis which remains influential within many contemporary schools of psychology, psychiatry, and psychotherapy, and across the humanities. Freud’s work has suffused contemporary Western thought and popular culture.
Many modern psychologists and psychotherapists follow Freud’s approach, even if they reject his theories. Nevertheless, they remain some of the most influential academic concepts of the 20th century.
The main contribution to (what is known): Sigmund Freud was the Founder of Psychoanalysis which remains influential within many contemporary schools of psychology, psychiatry, and psychotherapy, and across the humanities. Freud’s work has suffused contemporary Western thought and popular culture.
Many modern psychologists and psychotherapists follow Freud’s approach, even if they reject his theories. Nevertheless, they remain some of the most influential academic concepts of the 20th century.
Contributions to psychology and culture:
1. Theory of Psychoanalysis and fundamental concepts of Depth Psychology which are based on:
a) theory of the unconscious mind (also he didn’t invent this idea, but put it into clinical practice and made it popular). He wrote: “The mind is like an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water;
b) statement that libido or sexual instinct and desire (Eros or libido) is the primary motivational energy of human life and later in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920)- death drive (Thanatos) was added;
c) theory of sublimation, as the process of deflecting sexual instincts into acts of higher social valuation;
d) interpretation of dreams as sources of insight into unconscious desires. Freud called dreams the “royal road to the unconscious”. Dream mechanisms: condensation, displacement, identification, composition, inversion, secondary elaboration;
e) “repression” as the key factor in the operation of the unconscious and defence mechanism, which together with other mechanisms (denial, idealization, splitting, identification, rationalization) manipulate, deny, or distort reality to protect the ego;
f) theory of unconscious primary process and conscious secondary process;
g) Economic, homeostatic model of the psyche, the tendency of mental apparatus “to keep as low as possible the total amount of the excitations”.
2. Topology of the psyche. In 1899 Freud developed his first topology of the psyche or previous topographic schema:
conscious, unconscious, and preconscious.
In his later work (1920, 1923), he proposed that the human psyche could be divided into three parts:
The ego which operates on the Reality Principle,
Super-ego (a moral component of the psyche),
a) theory of the unconscious mind (also he didn’t invent this idea, but put it into clinical practice and made it popular). He wrote: “The mind is like an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water;
b) statement that libido or sexual instinct and desire (Eros or libido) is the primary motivational energy of human life and later in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920)- death drive (Thanatos) was added;
c) theory of sublimation, as the process of deflecting sexual instincts into acts of higher social valuation;
d) interpretation of dreams as sources of insight into unconscious desires. Freud called dreams the “royal road to the unconscious”. Dream mechanisms: condensation, displacement, identification, composition, inversion, secondary elaboration;
e) “repression” as the key factor in the operation of the unconscious and defence mechanism, which together with other mechanisms (denial, idealization, splitting, identification, rationalization) manipulate, deny, or distort reality to protect the ego;
f) theory of unconscious primary process and conscious secondary process;
g) Economic, homeostatic model of the psyche, the tendency of mental apparatus “to keep as low as possible the total amount of the excitations”.
2. Topology of the psyche. In 1899 Freud developed his first topology of the psyche or previous topographic schema:
conscious, unconscious, and preconscious.
In his later work (1920, 1923), he proposed that the human psyche could be divided into three parts:
The ego which operates on the Reality Principle,
Super-ego (a moral component of the psyche),
Id, which operates on the Pleasure Principle, satisfies urges for food and sex.
“The ego is not master in its own house”.
3. Development of psychics.
a) Personality is developed by the person’s childhood experiences;
b) personality develops during childhood through a series of psychosexual stages: 1) oral (birth-1 year), 2) anal (1-3), 3) phallic (3-6), 4) latent (6-12). 5) genital (12 -);
c) the stage at which a person becomes fixated in childhood has a decisive influence on adult personality;
d) Oedipus complex – boys passed through the phallic stage in which they fixated on the mother as a sexual object and on the father as a rival (In girls – Electra complex).
4. Clinical practice of psychoanalysis.
a) Freud created the clinical practice of psychoanalysis as a dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst or “talking cure”;
b) the goal of psychoanalysis, was to bring subconsciously repressed thoughts and feelings into consciousness in order to free the patient from the painful thoughts and feelings. “Where id was, their ego shall be”;
c) major points of Freudian therapy: Relaxed atmosphere, resistance, transference, catharsis, insight;
d) he developed therapeutic techniques, including the use of Free association and Dream analysis.
Freud wrote: “Analysis does not set out to make pathological reactions impossible, but to give the patient’s ego freedom to decide one way or another”.
5. Culture. Freud as a materialist and naturalist conceived civilization basically in terms of the basic human instinct or drive.
“It is impossible to overlook the extent to which civilization is built upon a renunciation of instinct”.
6. Religion. Freud maintained that “Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires. He perceived religion, with its suppression of man’s violent nature, restraint of the death drive, aggression and violence,
7. Creativity.
a) Creativity is identified with the work of the unconscious, with the manifestation of the energy of the id and the power of libido by means of the most beneficial defence mechanism- sublimation;
b) Freud, following Schiller, wrote that we can gain access to “involuntary ideas” by relaxing our rational control over the imagination;
c) fantasies are considered as Fulfilments of ambitious and erotic wishes, as an escape from inner conflict, as a “neutral zone”, a free space of pure imagination;
d) creative writer is borderline neurotic and creativity is a substitute for neurotic symptoms;
e) there is a strong analogy between artistic creation, child’s play, dreams, daydreaming, fantasy and humour. His last contribution to psychoanalytic theory was The Ego and the Id (1923) after which he reverted to earlier cultural preoccupations.
Freud remains one of the most influential figures in today’s psychology. Many modern psychotherapists follow Freud’s approach, even if they reject his theories.
Honours and Awards: Goethe Prize (1930).
Major works: Studies on Hysteria (with Josef Breuer) (1895), The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901), Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905), Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious (1905), Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming (Der Dichter und das Phantasieren, 1908), Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood, (1910), A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1910), Totem and Taboo (1913), On Narcissism (1914), Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1917), Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), The Ego and the Id (1923), The Future of an Illusion (1927), Civilization and Its Discontents (1930), Moses and Monotheism (1939), An Outline of Psycho-Analysis (1940).
“The ego is not master in its own house”.
3. Development of psychics.
a) Personality is developed by the person’s childhood experiences;
b) personality develops during childhood through a series of psychosexual stages: 1) oral (birth-1 year), 2) anal (1-3), 3) phallic (3-6), 4) latent (6-12). 5) genital (12 -);
c) the stage at which a person becomes fixated in childhood has a decisive influence on adult personality;
d) Oedipus complex – boys passed through the phallic stage in which they fixated on the mother as a sexual object and on the father as a rival (In girls – Electra complex).
4. Clinical practice of psychoanalysis.
a) Freud created the clinical practice of psychoanalysis as a dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst or “talking cure”;
b) the goal of psychoanalysis, was to bring subconsciously repressed thoughts and feelings into consciousness in order to free the patient from the painful thoughts and feelings. “Where id was, their ego shall be”;
c) major points of Freudian therapy: Relaxed atmosphere, resistance, transference, catharsis, insight;
d) he developed therapeutic techniques, including the use of Free association and Dream analysis.
Freud wrote: “Analysis does not set out to make pathological reactions impossible, but to give the patient’s ego freedom to decide one way or another”.
5. Culture. Freud as a materialist and naturalist conceived civilization basically in terms of the basic human instinct or drive.
“It is impossible to overlook the extent to which civilization is built upon a renunciation of instinct”.
6. Religion. Freud maintained that “Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires. He perceived religion, with its suppression of man’s violent nature, restraint of the death drive, aggression and violence,
7. Creativity.
a) Creativity is identified with the work of the unconscious, with the manifestation of the energy of the id and the power of libido by means of the most beneficial defence mechanism- sublimation;
b) Freud, following Schiller, wrote that we can gain access to “involuntary ideas” by relaxing our rational control over the imagination;
c) fantasies are considered as Fulfilments of ambitious and erotic wishes, as an escape from inner conflict, as a “neutral zone”, a free space of pure imagination;
d) creative writer is borderline neurotic and creativity is a substitute for neurotic symptoms;
e) there is a strong analogy between artistic creation, child’s play, dreams, daydreaming, fantasy and humour. His last contribution to psychoanalytic theory was The Ego and the Id (1923) after which he reverted to earlier cultural preoccupations.
Freud remains one of the most influential figures in today’s psychology. Many modern psychotherapists follow Freud’s approach, even if they reject his theories.
Honours and Awards: Goethe Prize (1930).
Major works: Studies on Hysteria (with Josef Breuer) (1895), The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901), Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905), Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious (1905), Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming (Der Dichter und das Phantasieren, 1908), Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood, (1910), A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1910), Totem and Taboo (1913), On Narcissism (1914), Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1917), Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), The Ego and the Id (1923), The Future of an Illusion (1927), Civilization and Its Discontents (1930), Moses and Monotheism (1939), An Outline of Psycho-Analysis (1940).
Career and personal life:
Family background: His father Jakob, a wool merchant, was 41 and his mother Amalié (née Nathansohn), the third wife of Jakob, was 21. Sigmund was the first of eight children in the family. Both of his parents were from Galicia, in modern-day Ukraine.
Education: Freud went to the University of Vienna aged 17. He received his M.D. degree in 1881 at the age of 25.
Influenced by: Brentano, Breuer, Darwin, Hartmann, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare, Goethe, Dostoyevsky.
Career highlights: Sigmund Freud qualified as a doctor of medicine in 1881 at the University of Vienna. Upon completing his habilitation in 1885, he took up work as a doctor at Vienna General Hospital was appointed a docent in neuropathology and became an affiliated professor in 1902.
Freud lived and worked in Vienna. In 1886 Freud resigned his hospital post, and entered private practice specializing in “nervous disorders”.
Freud fled Austria to escape the Nazis in 1938.
Relationship with C. Jung
Personal life: In 1882 He married Martha Bernays, the granddaughter of Isaac Bernays, a Chief Rabbi in Hamburg. The couple had six children.
With the Nazi occupation of Austria in 1938 Freud with his wife and daughter fled to England. Four of Freud’s five sisters died in concentration camps.
Freud battled mouth cancer for the last several years of his life but continued to smoke cigars.
He died at the age of 83 in the United Kingdom in 1939.
Education: Freud went to the University of Vienna aged 17. He received his M.D. degree in 1881 at the age of 25.
Influenced by: Brentano, Breuer, Darwin, Hartmann, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare, Goethe, Dostoyevsky.
Career highlights: Sigmund Freud qualified as a doctor of medicine in 1881 at the University of Vienna. Upon completing his habilitation in 1885, he took up work as a doctor at Vienna General Hospital was appointed a docent in neuropathology and became an affiliated professor in 1902.
Freud lived and worked in Vienna. In 1886 Freud resigned his hospital post, and entered private practice specializing in “nervous disorders”.
Freud fled Austria to escape the Nazis in 1938.
Relationship with C. Jung
Personal life: In 1882 He married Martha Bernays, the granddaughter of Isaac Bernays, a Chief Rabbi in Hamburg. The couple had six children.
With the Nazi occupation of Austria in 1938 Freud with his wife and daughter fled to England. Four of Freud’s five sisters died in concentration camps.
Freud battled mouth cancer for the last several years of his life but continued to smoke cigars.
He died at the age of 83 in the United Kingdom in 1939.
